Rule 6.5.Motions for Summary Judgment

Rule 6.5 forces both sides of a summary judgment fight to state their position on the facts in plain terms before the court wades into the merits. The moving party has to annex to its motion a statement — separate from the brief, short, and concise — that lays out each theory of recovery and each material fact it says has no genuine issue to be tried. That statement gives the judge, and the other side, a checklist of exactly what the moving party thinks is settled.

The opposing party answers in kind: a separate, short, concise statement of each material fact it says does present a genuine issue for trial. Neither side gets to bury the point in pages of narrative — the rule calls for a statement, not a treatise, which keeps the parties focused on identifying precisely where they agree the facts are undisputed and where they don’t.